Penny Marshall Comes Clean About Drugs, Cancer and The Real Reason 'Laverne & Shirley' Broke Up

Also Opens Up About Working With Whitney Houston and Farrah Fawcett

Who knew Penny Marshall - lovable star of Laverne & Shirley who later became the A-list director of family classics like Big and A League of Their Own - had led such a scandalous private life? Thanks to her new autobiography, entitled, My Mother Was Nuts, Marshall lifts the lid on some Hollywood mysteries while spilling several never-before-revealed secrets.

Throughout all her stories, one theme remains clear: Marshall's a quirky character. Rather than romanticizing the loss of her virginity when she was an awkward teen, she instead refers to it as a receiving "pity sex," from a male friend who wound up getting her pregnant. After the birth of their daughter, the couple split. Marshall then went on to marry director Rob Reiner.

She's brutally honest about her rampant drug use at the time, but now looks back at it in stride. "That's what I did - I'm not blaming anyone else," she says. "I don't do it now - I'm allergic to everything."

Beyond her personal life, she also opens up abotu her professional life - including the truth about what led to the ultimate demise of Laverne & Shirley. The blame, she says, falls on the husband of Cindy Marshall, the actress who played Shirley, who talked his wife into leaving the show so she could be a bigger star.

Read: Cyndi Lauper Contemplated Suicide, She Reveals In New Book

One of the most interesting revelations, in our opinion, is the one Marshall shared about her reaction to receiving the news in 2009 that she had both lung and brain cancer (she's now in remission). Her one request after hearing the diagnosis from her doctor? Hamburgers from White Castle.

"I like White Castle," she explains. "I'm a Libra. If things are bad, I calm down."

She also tells the truth about what it was like filming with both Farrah Fawcett and, years later, an unstable Whitney Houston.

A hot read, indeed!